316 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES, 



PARSLEY Jlpium petroselinum was known to 

 the Greeks, and received its distinctive name of pe- 

 troselinum from Dioscorides. It is said to be a 

 native of Sardinia, whence it was brought into Eng- 

 land about the middle of the sixteenth century ; but 

 the plant is of so ancient culture in this country, 

 that the period of its introduction cannot, perhaps, 

 be accurately assigned, and though supposed not to 

 be indigenous to Britain, it is now completely na- 

 turalized in various parts, both of England and Scot- 

 land. It is a hardy biennial plant. 



The principal varieties are the common plain- 

 leaved, the curled-leaved, and the Hamburgh or 

 broad-leaved. The plain-leaved parsley was the first 

 known in this country ; but it is not now much cul- 

 tivated, since the leaves are not so handsome as 

 those of the curled, are of a less brilliant green, 

 and are coarser in flavour. Another reason lor ba- 

 nishing it from the gardens is its resemblance to 

 fool's-parsley, or lesser hemlock, JElhusa cynapitim, 

 which is a noxious weed of a poisonous nature, in- 

 festing gardens and fields. If this intruder were 

 growing among plain parsley, an unobservant per- 

 son might confound the leaves of the one with the 

 other, although they differ somewhat in shape and 

 colour ; the leaves of the poisonous plant being of 

 rather a darker green, and, if bruised, they emit an 

 unpleasant odour, very different to that of parsley. 

 When in flowei they are easily distinguished, the 

 cethusa having an involucrum of three long, narrow, 

 sharp-pointed leaflets, hanging down under every 

 partial umbel, and vulgarly termed the beard ; while 

 in the garden parsley there is usually only one leaflet 

 at the general umbel, and at the partial umbel the 

 involucrum consists of only a few short folioles, almost 

 as fine as hairs. 



Parsley is raised from seed, which is sown in the 



